This interview is with Patty Meringer, who is the member of a reading group based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Read on to learn more about this group.


Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme?

A: No. The group was organized by two women who live in the same neighborhood and membership for the time being is based upon physical proximity. It was begun as a chance for the women in the neighborhood to get together to discuss books.

Q: How long has your group been in existence?

A: A little more than a year.

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?

A: We have a total of about 20 people in the group, though so far attendance at any given meeting has varied from as few as 7 to as many as 12. Our youngest members are in their late 30s and our oldest ones don't talk about their ages, but the group as a whole spans at least 2 decades in age range.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?

A: Our group meets monthly, on a set day (the third Monday of each month, unless it's a holiday or a special occasion) from September through June. Our December meeting is not a book discussion --- it's a social gathering at which we each bring children's books to donate to charity. We meet at the home of one of our members each month other than December.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?

A: To date, we have included some food at regular meetings (our meetings are held at 7:30 PM, so we assume that people have eaten dinner). We leave it up to the hostess of the meeting to determine what and whether she will provide anything other than coffee and soft drinks. We had one meeting in June, however, to which everyone was asked to bring a dish, and preferably one from the book we planned to discuss at that meeting (Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes). As I had suspected might be the case, there was significantly more eating and merriment than direct book discussion at this meeting (this is also the meeting where we at least begin the process of choosing books for the next year).

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?

A: For each meeting, we have a designated book, a discussion leader and a hostess. The group chooses the book; the hostess is responsible for refreshments and the meeting is held at her house; the leader is responsible for guiding the discussion and is free to use whatever materials she sees fit in preparing the discussion. We don't have a specific format, and our format is designed to accommodate different styles.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: Since we are such a new group, this is difficult to answer, as we have only chosen a few so far. Our first book was nonfiction (The Tipping Point), our second was literary fiction (A Widow for One Year), the third was historical fiction (The Red Tent) and then we did Under the Tuscan Sun in June, which is a travel/cooking/memoir sort of book. The list for the first half of the next period is varied: The Samurai's Garden, One Thousand White Women, The Emperor of Ocean Park and Pride and Prejudice are on the list so far.

Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?

A: This process is still evolving for us. At our organizational meeting in February, we chose 4 books for the months of March through June. Only a couple of members had recommendations, and there was no real system either for recommending a book or for evaluating the recommendation. For the most part, the initial books chosen were either a recommendation from one of the two people who had organized the group or a book that someone who had agreed to lead a given discussion had expressed an interest in discussing. When we met in June to discuss books for next year, a number of people came with suggestions, and we learned a bit more about how people wanted to choose books. I think this process will evolve to people either bringing the book(s) they wish to recommend or a summary of it to the meeting and then choosing from that list.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?

A: We are so new at this, it's impossible to say. We've only had three discussions so far, and the books were so different that it's difficult to compare them. As a group member, I would say that all of the books we have read so far involved lively discussion, and that was great. We haven't yet had the experience of a book just being something no one wanted to say much about or being so great that we just couldn't stop talking. I will say that A Widow for One Year was a good discussion book in my opinion because there was so much to discuss, so many different angles that could be explored and so many themes that evoked strong responses in people --- we only had 7 members present at that meeting, but we easily filled up our time and could have spent more.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Ask us again this time next year! We're still so new at this that we have not fallen into any kind of routine or rut yet, and many of us are still getting to know each other as well, so keeping it fun has not been an issue at all so far.

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?

A: My advice would be this: book groups provide a great avenue for trying new things with fairly low risk. Be bold in your approach, read books you wouldn't otherwise read, and invite someone to join whom you don't know well. We find that the books themselves are a tool to examine ourselves and explore new ideas and approaches to many things other than books.

Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?

A: Fortunately, no horror stories to this point! One cute anecdote: Our group consists of neighbors, some of whom know each other well but many of us know each other mainly in passing. For our second ever meeting of the group, we had chosen A Widow for One Year by John Irving for this discussion, and I had agreed to lead the discussion. The more I thought about the meeting, the more nervous I became. I knew very few of the members, almost none of them well, and I wondered whether they would feel comfortable enough with each other to discuss some of the issues the book raised. The weather that evening was cold and rainy, and only a handful of members came to the meeting, adding to my anxiety over the book discussion.

The meeting was held at the lovely home of one of our members, who was born and raised in India. Our hostess prepared a number of hors d'oeuvres, including an Indian delicacy, an exquisite soft cashew candy shaped like a diamond that was brushed silver on the top. They were beautiful to behold, but they were also delicious, and they began to disappear fairly quickly as we snacked before the meeting began. Our hostess told us a bit about the candies and noted in her soft, demure voice that they were brushed with real silver and that silver was very good for you. "Good for your sex life," she said. At that point, another member burst out laughing and said, "My God, we're talking about sex already and we haven't even gotten to discussing the book yet!" It was a great ice breaker, and we had a thoughtful and lively discussion about the book (not just about sex, either).

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?

A: Our group centers on our physical location, which is somewhat unique. No one in the group lives more than a few blocks from anyone else, so the meetings are easy to attend in that respect. Our members have very different backgrounds, several of us met for the first time at one of the first couple of meetings, and over time, it is likely to bring us together as a neighborhood community in a way that little else could.

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